O'Donnell glad to swerve battle

Thistle were worthy winners against a jaded looking County side, whose splendid nine-match unbeaten run came to an abrupt end.

O'Donnell's goal early in the second half secured the points for Thistle after team-mate Frederic Frans cancelled out an opener by Michael Gardyne with a wonder strike.

O'Donnell said: "We worked hard and matched them physically. There was an unbelievable strike from Freddy although we were a bit fortunate with my goal.

"We've had a lot of stick this year, there was a lot of talk before the Motherwell game that we were going to get dragged back into the relegation mix. But we've managed to answer that, like we did around the same time last year."

He added: "It would be great to finish as high as possible. But first and foremost we are trying to consolidate eighth place. We will look to push on and win our remaining games and we what happens."

Ross County skipper Paul Quinn was naturally disappointed with his side's lacklustre performance.

He said: "We're obviously disappointed the run has come to an end and we were disappointed in the way we played. The better team won on the day - we don't have any complaints other than how we played.

"I think there were too many of our players who were just not at it today - collectively and individually. We weren't on top of Partick Thistle the way we've been dominating teams, mentally and physically lately.

"But our fate is in our own hands it's as simple as that. Three months ago it wasn't in our hands. We need to dust ourselves down and be positive. It is all about mental attitude at this stage of the season."

Looking ahead to next Saturday's match against Motherwell, he added: "We will be mentally focussed on Motherwell and we know what job we have to do in the next four games.

"We've only had to pick ourselves up from the depths before this season - that's when we lost to St Mirren to go six points at the bottom of the table. And we all saw the reaction from this group of players - you see what we could do - it is clear we are a good side.

"We are disappointed but we will get rid of that in the next day or two and we will start focussing on Motherwell."